The present invention relates to a battery connector, and more particularly to a battery connector for a portable device which is used by being fixed to a printed wiring board (PWB) by soldering or the like.
A battery connector is generally used by being connected to a subject substrate incorporated in an electronic device mounted on a printed wiring board (PWB). Terminal ends of contact members are exposed from a housing of the battery connector, and soldering portions project therefrom in flat form.
A 3P battery connector P1, which is a battery connector of a first related art shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, has three contact members 101 constituted by U-shaped spring portions inside a housing 100. As shown in FIG. 5 illustrating a cross section taken along line B—B in FIG. 4, a rear-end extended portion of each contact member 101 is bent toward the rear in an L-shape in a cross-sectional view. The rearwardly bent portion is formed as a soldering portion 102, and the battery connector P1 is attached by soldering to a printed wiring board 3 by soldering by means of one surface of each of the soldering portions 102.
Further, a 4P battery connector P2 which is a battery connector of a second related art shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 has a housing 200 and four contact members 201 constituted by U-shaped spring portions. A rear-end extended portion of each contact member 201 is formed as a soldering portion 202 projecting toward the printed wiring board 3, and is attached by being inserted in an attaching hole in the printed wiring board 3 at the time of attachment.
Furthermore, both the battery connector P1 of the first related art and the battery connector P2 of the second related art are structured such that as for the surface which is mounted on the printed wiring board, only one surface can be used.
With the battery connectors P1 and P2 of the first and second related arts, the printed-wiring-board mounting surface for mounting on the printed wiring board is provided only on one surface of the housing on the side where the soldering portions of the contact members are provided. For this reason, the battery connector at its limited single mounting surface is conventionally mounted on the printed wiring board 3. Accordingly, since all the shapes of the battery connectors mounted on the printed wiring boards 3 are the same, if the shape and the size of a mating portion such as a socket for fitting the battery connector mounted on the printed wiring board 3 changes, it is impossible to cope with the situation. Hence, there has been a need to newly form a battery connector of a different shape conforming thereto.
In addition, with the battery connectors P1 and P2 of the first and second related arts, since they have single soldering portions 102 projecting from the housing 100, there has been a problem in that the battery connectors cannot be made further compact. There has been another problem in that at the time of soldering the soldering portion 102 and the printed wiring board 3, a mounting offset occurs due to the surface tension of the solder.